A Sunless Dream

Sunny looked around him, seventy thousand nightmare creatures at the fallen devil rank or above. He was going to kill them all. His posture conveyed nothing of the emotions he felt as his face was clad in the onyx material of Weavers mask. The battlefield seemed to come to a stop as they surrounded him a wide circle and within a few moments, chaos ensued.

Sunny released the soul serpent from it's tattoo form as it formed into a long pitch black Odachi that rested in his hands. Without giving the first a second to coordinate it's actions Sunny leapt at it with reckless abandon, swinging his sword in an arc Sunny aimed at the neck of the creature slicing it off in a single blow.

'Too much power' he thought to himself as he turned to face the next creature, it appeared took the form of a grotesque bull with three faces and upon further inspection it was fallen devil of the same rank as the black knight that roamed the cathedral in the dark city. If he was a sleeper such an entity would have been a severe threat to his life, however times had changed.

Sunny sliced the legs of the oncoming opponent, quickly separating them from the creatures body. Twisting himself at an impossible angle Sunny dodged a slash that came from his blind spot as he thrust serpent now in the form of a spear directly into the eye of his attacker. Quickly shifting it back into it's original form, Sunny allowed the serpent to flow back onto his body as he approached his enemies with his bare hands.

Throwing out a punch, Sunny caught one of his new oncoming foes in the jaw. A regular person would have been stunned by such an attack however, in the case of a nightmare creature it's unique physiology allowed it to remain composed even after such a blow. Although, these physiological advantages only worked when your opponent did not have the strength to send your jaw flying off your body. Which Sunny had.

Continuing his rampage, Sunny ducked low and kicked a nightmare creature into the air. The force of his kick sent himself flying into the air with it as he grabbed it by the head and punched it straight through the chest where the soul core should be located, the nightmare creatures were quick to take initiative on Sunny's precarious position in the air as they jumped up to meet him in his continued ascent.

Sunny however, had other ideas as he grabbed the freshly deceased corpse of a nightmare creature and swung it at the on comers with immense force creating an earthquake beneath him. The momentary distraction gave him enough time to continue mowing through the rest of the nightmare creatures, though sometimes he fought with his hands eventually he shifted back to his more favoured form of combat as he reaped the lives of tens of thousands in mere moments.

His immense focus on the current battle taking place stopped Sunny from focusing on a bystander who was recording him from a distance, luckily for him Sunny's one-man war against every living entity in the continent allowed him to record safely without fear of being attacked by a stray nightmare creature. With shaking hands, he continued to hold up his camera as he recorded a man clad in only a black shirt and beige shorts as well as a mask which resembled something only found in eldritch abominations slaughter tens of thousands of creatures. "He-he's not a man...he's the devil" was all he managed to stammer out to himself, not willing to take any chances he quickly shared this footage to every communicator in his vicinity and fled the scene to reap the rewards of his new findings.

Completely oblivious to this news, Nephis sat remained seated in the ivory tower. Making herself busy by reminiscing upon her encounter with the man who called himself Sunless. Holding out her hands, a vivid memory of the feeling she had came to her mind. Her hands were pressed against his neck, draining him of all the life he had within him, and he was utterly unable to resist her will. Though she would never admit it, the power she had over him in that moment gave her a feeling of ecstasy.

Total and unaltered control over another human being went against everything she believed in, her very purpose was to fight against the three ghouls who not only robbed her of her father but also many others of their ability to choose the path they wanted and decide what was best for themselves. However, she quickly came to understand how one could covet such power. The feeling was something that couldn't quite be put into words, however there was something about it which acted like a weak insidious tentacle at the back of her mind constantly pulling her towards the feeling.

'He's a danger to himself, if left alone who knows what might happen' Nephis thought to herself, why she was concerned was an utter mystery however, the feeling could not be shaken nonetheless. He had made it extremely clear that he never wanted to see her again, however a mere command and he would be rushing here against his own will. "What an odd situation to be in" she said aloud to nobody in particular. She wanted to analyse the runes that represented her irrefutable control over the man, to be sure that what she had experienced was not a mere illusion. And she did exactly that, focusing on a different set of runes her poker face which she had spent a good portion of her life trying to develop was shattered in an instant.

Slave's Name – Sunless

Slave's Rank – Transcendent

Slave's Aspect – Shadow Slave

Slave's Aspect Rank - Divine

Slave's Class – Terror

Slave's Cores – [6/7]

Slave's Shadow Fragment's – [7683/8000]

'He's...also a divine aspect user?' she thought with wide eyes, moving her eyes further down the runes she observed that he was extremely close to being able to awaken his seventh core. However, that was not what surprised her, what did was the rate in which they went up. Taking a moment to blink, she observed that he was merely one more kill away from reaching his seventh core. 'What could he possibly be doing right now?' she thought to herself, donning her armour she made her way out of her room rushing down the stairs.

Grabbing the attention of the nearest fire keeper, she all but shouted "Has there been any recent instances of hoards of nightmare creatures in the dream realm?" the look in her eyes expressed her impatience and not one to waste words she was only responded to with a nervous shake of the head. How would a man be able to kill this many nightmare creatures in a short amount of time? If there were no nightmare hoards that had arisen in the dream realm then he was either killing mountains of great nightmare creatures or large amounts of fallen nightmare creatures and above.

She had no information on this man, either option was entirely feasible. If it were the former, then her ability to express complete control over him might have to be considered extremely more intensely compared to what she had done prior. That type of man was not normal for a transcendent, if it were the latter then she still had a problem on her hands. Her ability to kill nightmare creatures was one to be marvelled at, however culling such amounts of nightmare creatures at that level with that pace was not an event she could even hope to replicate.

[Cassie? Can you hear me?] she asked, already making her way into the waking world. There was no time for her to waste her words and no time to waste, this many nightmare creatures posed a significant threat to all those who remained in the waking world. And it was her 'duty' to stop those events, no matter how terrifying such a man was, one man simply could not kill every single member of a huge hoard.

[I'm here Nephis, what do you need me to do it sounds urgent?] was the reply she got. Before even considering the words for a response she was racing to Antarctica at top speeds, there was nowhere else that many nightmare creatures were concentrated. [Go to the dream realm, if you're already there that's even better. Check if there have been any hoards of nightmare creatures that we've missed and if there are then contact me immediately!] she said cutting off the mental link signifying the end to the conversation.

At top speeds, she had made it all the way from Korea to Antarctica in under twenty minutes though the extended land mass connecting the two established by the government did wonders. However, she had expected a variety of things upon being directed to the location of the nearest hoard. But what she could have never expected in even her wildest dreams, was to see a man, donning the same attire she had met him in a week prior standing alone in a sea of fallen nightmare creatures.

Immediately noticing her presence, Sunny raised his hands to his neck and began scratching once more. His hands slid off as he was slick in the blood of nightmare creatures however, he still managed to draw thin lines of blood from himself as he stared at her with an expression of utter hopelessness "It's been a FUCKING WEEK. CAN'T YOU LET ME REST FOR A FUCKING WEEK!" he bellowed at her, before she could utter a retort. Like before, Sunny was surrounded in a tornado of shadows and disappeared once more.

(For clarification for those who didn't know, Sunny has been fighting these nightmare creatures for more than a week straight and Nephis only noticed afterwards hence triggering this interaction.]